1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sodium salt of a disaccharide compound represented by the formula indicated below.

2. Description of the Related Art
A compound represented by the above formula, and a tetrasodium salt thereof, is known to have superior effects for the prevention and treatment of gram-negative bacteremias, particularly endotoxic shock, having a high mortality rate caused by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) or endotoxins present in the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. In addition, it has also been confirmed to have superior anti-endotoxin activity in humans (Non-Patent Document 1). And, it is also known to have antagonistic activity against toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4), which is one of the receptors that recognize bacterial cellular components (Patent Documents 1 and 2). On the basis of these actions, the aforementioned compound and tetrasodium salt thereof have been reported to be particularly useful as preventives or therapeutics for septicemia, endotoxemia or improving prognosis following coronary artery bypass surgery (Patent Documents 2 and 3).    [Patent Document 1] International Publication No. WO 2004/071465    [Patent Document 2] International Publication No. WO 96/39411    [Patent Document 3] International Publication No. WO 2004/074303    [Non-Patent Document 1] Lynn, et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 308(1): 175-181, 2004